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He mows, she cooks. Together, they have lots of great sex

Here’s one good reason why there’s such a thing as “man’s work” and “women’s work” – more sex.

Or one bad reason. Depends on how good the sex is. Because in this instance, we’re talking about married couples.

And the best ones when it comes to rumpy-pumpy are – surprise – the old-fashioned ones.

Yep, if you’re the kind of bloke who only cooks on the barbecue and you’re married to a woman who refuses to mow the lawns, lucky you.

Married men and women who share men’s and women’s work barely get any. And if they do, it’s rubbish, according to a new study co-authored by sociologists at the University of Washington.

Let’s skip to the chase first – what’s normal when it comes to how often married couples have sex?

The research survey of 4500 heterosexual married U.S. couples reported sex happened about five times, on average, in the month prior to the survey.

But marriages in which the wife does all the traditionally female tasks reported having had sex about 1.6 times more per month than those where the husband does all the traditionally female chores.

Other studies may claim that husbands get more sex if they do more housework, implying that sex was in exchange for housework. But those studies did not factor in what types of chores the husbands were doing, the UW researchers say.

The new study, published in the February issue of the journal American Sociological Review, shows “that gender still organizes quite a bit of everyday life in marriage,” co-author Julie Brines, a UW associate professor of sociology, said.

“In particular, it seems that the gender identities husbands and wives express through the chores they do also help structure sexual behavior.”

Of course, another lead author warned husbands not to use these findings as justification for not cooking, cleaning, shopping or performing other traditionally female household tasks. But she is a woman.

Aaand as such, is completely entitled to her very valid opinion.

“Men who refuse to help around the house could increase conflict in their marriage and lower their wives’ marital satisfaction,” Sabino Kornrich added.

The researchers found that husbands, average age 46, and wives, average age 44, spent a combined 34 hours a week on traditionally female chores.

Couples spent an additional 17 hours a week on chores usually thought of as men’s work.

Husbands performed about one-fifth of traditionally female tasks and a little more than half of the male-type work. This suggests that wives help out with men’s chores more often than husbands help with female tasks.

“Marriage today isn’t what it was 30 or 40 years ago, but there are some things that remain important,” Brines said.

“Sex and housework are still key aspects of sharing a life, and both are related to marital satisfaction and how spouses express their gender identity.”